McNears Beach water quality improves, county says

McNears Beach has passed all its water tests so far in 2014, showing improvement in water quality from the previous year, county officials say.

A recent report by the Natural Resources Defense Council — a nonprofit watchdog that pushes for strong environmental regulations — put McNears Beach among the "dirtiest" beaches in the Bay Area. The report was based on 2013 tests, five of which showed elevated bacterial levels that led to warnings posted at McNears.

"We test the water weekly," said Linda Dahl, county parks director. "We have not exceeded the safe levels in 2014."

No sewage is leaking in the McNears vicinity, Dahl said, "so whatever contaminants we are receiving are in Richardson Bay."

Steve Fleischli, director of the National Resources Defense Council's water program, said it is a positive sign that tests have shown no dangerous bacterial levels at McNears this year, but it is a beach that should be monitored closely.

"McNears is one of the beaches that is inconsistent in terms of problems, but it is also inconsistent in terms of sampling," Fleischli said. "It's always good when the samples come back clean, but this is one of those beaches where you have to look at it over time."

Rebecca Ng, deputy director of the county's environmental health services division, said the county tests water at its beaches weekly, from April to October, "generally when people go to the beach."

When warnings are posted, such as the ones in 2013, the notices stay up for about a week, Ng said, and testing is ramped up. Instead of waiting the usual week, follow-up water samples are examined within a day or two of when the high bacterial count was detected.

"According to our beach monitoring results, McNears should be safe," Ng said. "The (Defense Council) uses a different standard than the state standard. So what they found being out of compliance might be in compliance with California standards."

State law requires agencies to post warnings at beaches when tests show at 104 organisms per 100 ml of the bacterium, enterococcus, a fecal indicator that suggests possible raw sewage contamination.

The Defense Council based its report on a more stringent 60 organisms per 100 ml, a standard that has been suggested for certain regulations but is not used in any official capacity.

If the state used the lower threshold, it would have led to one more warning being posted at McNears in 2013.

Fleischli said the science supports using the lower threshold. Michael Gjerde, an official with the State Water Quality Board, said the lower threshold would be better for public health, but the improvement would not pay off in the overall equation.

Warnings would increase by up to 50 percent, many of which would prove to be the equivalent of false alarms.

"What they are not accounting for at all is the opportunity cost of posting when people could go swimming," Gjerde said. "We don't want to cry wolf too often so that people won't pay any attention."

Ng said the only area notorious for flunking the enterococcus tests is Chicken Ranch Ditch, a water hole near — and not to be confused with — Chicken Ranch Beach, on Tomales Bay.

Officials have not been testing the ditch, Ng, because it dried up more than a month ago.

One positive side effect to California's drought, Fleischli said, is that with less rain, there is less runoff to carry dangerous bacteria into waterways.

"Statewide, water quality is generally better," Fleischli said, "because there is less runoff from rain."